"Vietnam is not yet known for its software, but Vietnamese programmers have good skills, and we are cheaper than India and China," Hung said.
Based in Ho Chi Minh City, the software company had little money to promote itself abroad. But, like many other tech companies in Vietnam, Hung used another means to get the inside track on some of his high-powered deals -- contacts with fellow Vietnamese overseas already working in the industry.
With cheap, educated and plentiful labor, Vietnam's emerging IT sector has mushroomed from a handful of software companies two years ago to more than 250 domestic and foreign-owned companies, said Truong Gia Binh, chief executive of Vietnam's largest Internet company, FPT.
It's only a matter of time before the Communist country becomes a full-fledged regional IT player, he said.
"IBM, HP, NTT -- they already accept the quality of Vietnamese programmers," he said. "Young Vietnamese IT people are very eager to take on the challenge of showing they can do more."
The country's Communist leadership only allowed the Internet into Vietnam in 1997 and restricts access through filtering software.
But that hasn't stopped IT from blossoming into a $290 million market that could more than double by next year, according to the research firm IDG Vietnam. The country is starting to carve a niche for itself as a software development base for clients from North America, Europe and Japan, a new study suggests.
The report, released by Andersen Vietnam Ltd., finds some of the industry's leading names -- IBM, Cisco, Nortel, Hewlett-Packard, Sony and Fuji -- already outsourcing work to Vietnam, though the overall value of contracts remains well below $10 million annually.
"If you want fast turnaround, go somewhere established like India," said Marc Lopatin, director of Research Vietnam, the independent analyst who conducted the study. "But if you're looking for a long-term, cost-effective partner, Vietnam has the potential to be that."
The number of U.S. companies seeking to outsource the labor-intensive writing of code to cheaper locales will grow by 50 percent in the next two years, Forrester Research predicts.
Vietnamese programmers charge less than half what their counterparts in India make. Including overhead charges, corporate customers pay about $20,000 per person per year in Vietnam, compared to $30,000 in Russia or Romania and $40,000 in India, Research Vietnam says.
"With Vietnam, you do get quality," Lopatin said. "Its education system, which emphasizes rote learning, mathematics and logic, creates good programmers. But the bottom line is cost."
But Vietnam's IT ambitions face some serious obstacles. Telecommunications charges are among the most expensive in Asia and then there are the restrictions on Internet access. Though there are five licensed ISPs, the state monopoly, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications, controls the country's one international gateway.
That allows the government to create filters to block politically or culturally sensitive information, which end up slowing data transmission.
"Infrastructure remains Vietnam's single biggest problem," said Don Lam, a deputy director for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. "Communication costs are starting to drop, but the fundamental issue has not been fixed."
The country also faces a shortage of programming talent.
It produces about 2,500 university graduates a year, about 10 percent short of the country's demand, according to the Ministry of Education and Training. That gap is expected to widen to 15 percent over the next three years.
But Vietnam's leaders -- keen for an industry that requires relatively little capital but yields huge revenues-- appear to be taking some of the right steps.
They have enacted a slew of favorable policies since 2000, and plan to grant domestic competitors additional licenses to access the Internet gateway. Foreign ISPs will be allowed to compete by the end of 2003.
Telecommunications charges are set to be seriously trimmed this year, to fall in line with regional rates, while software companies are being offered incentives like tax breaks and fast-track licensing.
Vietnam is also scrambling to build up its tech-labor pool. Vocational centers set up by Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, and India's Aptech are supplementing university computer science programs.
On the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, the 100-acre campus of Quang Trung Software City fosters the Politburo's dream of incubating dot-com entrepreneurs.
Named after an 18th century king who encouraged an "open door" policy of trade and cultural exchange, the year-old software park features manicured flower beds and a gurgling fountain, but remains a work in progress.
Its biggest incentive -- a separate, filter-free connection to the Internet -- has yet to come on line.
"Things pick up slowly here, but the priorities are still basic and sound," said Jean Paul Tschumi, chief representative for the Swiss-based IT company ELCA, which has a staff of 30 in its Quang Trung office. "Nothing will change overnight but we are here for the long term."
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